Evidence collection for the Review of Elective Home Education in England by Graham Badman

Dear Kathryn

Thank you for your recent email. A reply will be sent to you as soon as
possible. For information, the departmental standard for correspondence
received is that responses should be sent within 20 working days as you
are requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number 2009/0079291

Thank you.

Central Allocation Team

Public Communications Team

Tel: 0870 0002288
www.dcsf.gov.uk

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Dear Ms Jefferson,
Thank you for your request for information, which was received on 17 Septembert. Before answering your
request I should like to apologise for the delay in replying. The Department is aware that it has missed
the statutory deadline for reply and is in breach of its obligations under the Act. While I appreciate
that it is in no way a justification I should like to explain that the Department makes every effort to
meet deadlines, but the delay in responding in this case has been due to the unusual volume of requests
the Department has received in recent months.

I have dealt with your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. You requested -

On page 4 of the report, under the heading "Conduct of the Review"
it is stated that: "The review was conducted by means of structured
interview with a range of stakeholders including home educating
parents and children, visits to local authorities and home
education groups, a public call for evidence and a questionnaire to
all top tier local authorities in England." Please answer the
following questions regarding this statement:

The information to your questions, that we hold, is advised below -

1) What specifically does a structured interview consist of? Please
give full details of the structure of the interview & a list of
questions asked &/or topics discussed. If the interview was
conducted differently with the different stakeholder groups, please
provide corresponding structured interview details as requested
above.

The framework of questions used by Graham Badman is attached. This was modified for each group of people,
for instance, Mr Badman pursued some issues with some groups more, and pursued other lines of enquiry as
and when they arose.

2a) How many home educating parents and how many children were
interviewed? Please supply separate numbers for each.

The Department does not hold this information. The main vehicle for talking to parents was at group
meetings.

2b) How was it decided which home educating parents &/or children
to interview?

The final decision was largely due to which groups were operating on the days that Graham Badman was also
available.

3a) Which home education groups were visited?

Education Otherwise and Home Education Advisory Service

3b) What was the structure of the visits to home education groups?

See reply to question 1 above.

3c) How was it decided which home education groups to visit?

Advice from Education Otherwise and Home Education Advisory Service

4) How was the public call for evidence advertised? Please give
full details of all adverts, including where they were placed & at
what time if relevant.

The public call for evidence was advertised through a press notice, the DCSF consultation website, and by
a targeted e-mail to key stakeholders.

Press notice - available on the Every Child Matters website at

http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters...

Consultation website, available on the DCSF consultation website at
[1]http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/consultations/ind...

The information supplied to you is protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Any documents
produced by government officials will be covered by Crown Copyright. You are free to use the information
for your own purposes, including any non-commercial research you are doing and for the purposes of news
reporting. Any other reuse, for example commercial publication, would require the permission of the
copyright holder and is regulated by the Reuse of Public Sector Information Regulations 2005. You can
find details on the arrangements for re-using Crown Copyright at:

Office of Public Sector Information
Information Policy Team
Kew
Richmond
Surrey
TW9 4DU

Email: [2][email address]

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please remember to quote the reference
number above in any future communications.

If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you should make a complaint to the
Department by writing to me within two calendar months of the date of this letter. Your complaint will be
considered by an independent review panel, who were not involved in the original consideration of your
request.

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint to the Department, you may then contact the
Information Commissioner's Office.
Yours sincerely,

Josephine Bell
Independent Schools Partnerships and Strategy Team
[email address]
[3]www.dcsf.gov.uk

Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number 2009/0079291.

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References

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